I was in India when Katrina hit the US. The way their media portrayed it made me furious. They compared it to some minor flooding (and the subsequent evacuation) that Mumbai had about that time. I remember getting really angry with people and telling them to be thankful that a Katrina-like hurricane hadn't hit them.

When the winds dip below cyclone strength then they will call it Super Storm Phailin, that way the Prime Minister can pretend that he had to deal with a catastrophe instead of just a plain rain storm and get some political gain out of it.

"A worst case scenario would have Phailin tracking slightly eastward of its current forecasted track, toward Kolkata and the Ganges Delta of Bangladesh, which is home to tens of millions of people living just a few meters above sea level," .

I remember a documentary on storm systems that I watched, years ago, which mentioned a substance which loved water; a fairly small bag would turn a 55-gallon drum of water into a sort of chemical gelatin within seconds. The goal was to drop it from aircraft and disrupt incoming severe weather.

It had footage of several tons of the stuff being spread over a tropical storm which was threatening to become a hurricane; this powder <i>ate</i> an entire cloudbank, and even after most of it was absorbed by the upper layers, you could see the entire system thinning all the way down.

The near-hurricane had dispersed into an average-for-the-area typhoon by the time it made landfall, though there was a great deal of a strange, gelatinous substance coming down with all that rain. While it dissolved and became inert fairly quickly, it was said that pets which came into contact with it had minor neurological problems, such as tremors and unsteady gait for a few hours.

This was before the Internet was nearly as useful as it is now, so I couldn't find information on it at the time and now, I don't know where to start looking; I keep coming up short. :/

It does beg a very interesting question, though; IF this stuff works as advertised and IF it can break a hurricane down to a regular storm, which do you choose; the damage from a category 5 hurricane, or a mostly untried substance of unknown toxicity raining down, forcing people to remain indoors while they wait for it to evaporate?

When the winds dip below cyclone strength then they will call it Super Storm Phailin, that way the Prime Minister can pretend that he had to deal with a catastrophe instead of just a plain rain storm and get some political gain out of it.

0z79:I remember a documentary on storm systems that I watched, years ago, which mentioned a substance which loved water; a fairly small bag would turn a 55-gallon drum of water into a sort of chemical gelatin within seconds. The goal was to drop it from aircraft and disrupt incoming severe weather.

It had footage of several tons of the stuff being spread over a tropical storm which was threatening to become a hurricane; this powder <i>ate</i> an entire cloudbank, and even after most of it was absorbed by the upper layers, you could see the entire system thinning all the way down.

The near-hurricane had dispersed into an average-for-the-area typhoon by the time it made landfall, though there was a great deal of a strange, gelatinous substance coming down with all that rain. While it dissolved and became inert fairly quickly, it was said that pets which came into contact with it had minor neurological problems, such as tremors and unsteady gait for a few hours.

This was before the Internet was nearly as useful as it is now, so I couldn't find information on it at the time and now, I don't know where to start looking; I keep coming up short. :/

It does beg a very interesting question, though; IF this stuff works as advertised and IF it can break a hurricane down to a regular storm, which do you choose; the damage from a category 5 hurricane, or a mostly untried substance of unknown toxicity raining down, forcing people to remain indoors while they wait for it to evaporate?

i think it is Dyn-o-Gel. A name that would also work in the dinosaur erotica thread.

EnderX:When the winds dip below cyclone strength then they will call it Super Storm Phailin, that way the Prime Minister can pretend that he had to deal with a catastrophe instead of just a plain rain storm and get some political gain out of it.

EnderX:When the winds dip below cyclone strength then they will call it Super Storm Phailin, that way the Prime Minister can pretend that he had to deal with a catastrophe instead of just a plain rain storm and get some political gain out of it.

This wasn't funny the first time, but damn it if it isn't the rib-ticklingest, knee-slappingest, belly-laughingest political joke I've heard in ages the second time around!

0z79:I remember a documentary on storm systems that I watched, years ago, which mentioned a substance which loved water; a fairly small bag would turn a 55-gallon drum of water into a sort of chemical gelatin within seconds. The goal was to drop it from aircraft and disrupt incoming severe weather.

It had footage of several tons of the stuff being spread over a tropical storm which was threatening to become a hurricane; this powder <i>ate</i> an entire cloudbank, and even after most of it was absorbed by the upper layers, you could see the entire system thinning all the way down.

The near-hurricane had dispersed into an average-for-the-area typhoon by the time it made landfall, though there was a great deal of a strange, gelatinous substance coming down with all that rain. While it dissolved and became inert fairly quickly, it was said that pets which came into contact with it had minor neurological problems, such as tremors and unsteady gait for a few hours.

This was before the Internet was nearly as useful as it is now, so I couldn't find information on it at the time and now, I don't know where to start looking; I keep coming up short. :/

It does beg a very interesting question, though; IF this stuff works as advertised and IF it can break a hurricane down to a regular storm, which do you choose; the damage from a category 5 hurricane, or a mostly untried substance of unknown toxicity raining down, forcing people to remain indoors while they wait for it to evaporate?

Your story reminds me of this stuff, Dyn-O-Storm. But the story is from 2002. Silver Iodide has been used for cloud seeding for decades, but it only causes rain. The effects you describe more remind me of the polymer in the story.

"Skimming the surface of the formation, the pilot dumped the powder, which drifted into the mist below. Minutes later observers in radar stations saw the cloud evaporate and disappear. Far below, a misty gel rained down into the waves and dissolved. "

factoryconnection:EnderX: When the winds dip below cyclone strength then they will call it Super Storm Phailin, that way the Prime Minister can pretend that he had to deal with a catastrophe instead of just a plain rain storm and get some political gain out of it.

EnderX: When the winds dip below cyclone strength then they will call it Super Storm Phailin, that way the Prime Minister can pretend that he had to deal with a catastrophe instead of just a plain rain storm and get some political gain out of it.

This wasn't funny the first time, but damn it if it isn't the rib-ticklingest, knee-slappingest, belly-laughingest political joke I've heard in ages the second time around!

Keep up the incredible work.

What EnderX is explaining is where the gain due to rain will fall, mainly.

One of the most densely populated coastlines in the world that is very vulnerable to storm surge and has relatively poor infrastructure.

Understatement fo the year. Even normal storms can cause devastating floods in Bangladesh because of how low lying it is....At Cat 5 storm going stright up the Bay of Bengal? six digit death tolls would not be out of the question...God almighty, this could get really bad...